Developer defends reviving controversial Arrowtown Ridgeburn housing project

The developer behind a controversial housing project near Arrowtown is defending a revised fast-track application and says more housing is needed in the area.Ridgeburn Ltd was offering interest-free deposit loans for first-home buyers and an extra $27 million for road upgrades and bus infrastructure near its proposed 1210-house development and commercial precinct.The project had been criticised by locals, who argued it was the wrong project in the wrong place, with the potential to choke roads, hurt regional tourism and bypass years of careful district council planning.The developers temporarily withdrew their application in July after councils highlighted "significant information gaps" and Fast-track panel convenor Jane Borthwick concluded it was not ready to be passed to an expert panel.But plans were in place to submit again this month.The director of Ridgeburn, Kurt Gibbons, told Morning Report, one of the big issues the first time around was the development's wastewater plant.The site of a housing project near Arrowtown proposed by Ridgeburn Ltd.Supplied / Ridgeburn"We had been working with iwi around replanting and recloaking Morven Hill, which is 54 hectares of native planting, when our wastewater plant put out its disposal we thought the best spot for it would be on Morven Hill."After listening to our community and the worries they had we decided to move that disposal field to a lower level slat disposal field."Gibbons claimed the water which would come out of the waterwater plant would be batheable."I think it was going to be a challenging part to the consent being on a hill, it would've taken a lot more time to get people comfortable around that. I think consent was plausible but it would've been challenged."Gibbons said Queenstown as a whole needed housing, with rental prices too high."We've got the highest growth in the country, we've got high rent, high prices and we need supply... we're building supply... we need to plan for the future."Ridgeburn was not just housing, Gibbons said, it would have office spaces, daycare centres and bars."We've got $38m to build a wastewater treatment plant and we've asked Queenstown Council if they want to connect into our plant, they're not interested. We're spending $27m on roading upgrades, you've got a really dangerous intersection already there that has accidents..."In terms of affordability within Ridgeburn, Gibbons originally said 20 percent of it would be affordable. When Morning Report challenged those numbers he conceded 45 of the affordable houses would be for sale and 135 were rent capped for 10 years, which he said was about 16 percent or 180 houses.An artist's impression of the proposed Ridgeburn housing project near Arrowtown, Otago.Supplied / Ridgeburn"Look there's a lot of developments out there, I don't know any other developments in the country that is offering this," he said."We have out own wastewater treatment plant, we have our own stormwater management system, we're collecting our own portable water for the site, we're building roads that aren't there that are needed already."With the wastewater treatment plant there would be sludge that would need to be collected, Gibbons said, but he could not say "off the top of my head" where that sludge would go."The team that put it together will know where it's going," he said.Gibbons said he lived in Arrowtown with his family but knew many people who wanted to live there couldn't due to the lack of affordable housing."This is providing public good because it's creating housing, giving people the opportunity to get into a home in an area they want to live."Queenstown Smart Growth Initiative, which was formed in opposition to the project, earlier told RNZ, it would continue to fight the application.Spokesperson Hanna Pettit said she was concerned that the $27 million infrastructure upgrades offered by Ridgeburn were the "bare minimum" needed to handle the traffic the development would create.Queenstown Smart Growth Initiative spokesperson Hanna Petit. (File photo)RNZ / Katie Todd"You've also got to factor in the fact that there's a huge amount of congestion cost that the community will be wearing because of Ridgeburn and that $27 million will likely only be one or two years of that of congestion cost to the community," she said.The group was unconvinced by the first-home buyer incentives, Pettit said."You've got to question if people can't afford their deposit then can they be affording their mortgage? Because they'll be paying the mortgage as well as paying back the developer for that deposit. I think it makes for an attractive thing to sell. I don't think it necessarily addresses the affordability issues the area has," she said.Ridgeburn's location beyond the district's agreed growth boundary has seen it become the centrepiece of debate about the suitability of the Fast-track process for housing.Pettit said the revised application did not quell her concerns that Ridgeburn was simply in the wrong spot."I think the developer is conflating two issues. Obviously there is a need for affordable homes and we're not arguing that that's not the case but we believe that those affordable homes need to be where they're planned to be, which is within the spatial plan, close to job opportunities, close to existing infrastructure, close to public transport," she said.Queenstown Lakes District councillor Jon Mitchell said the council would look closely at the revised application, particularly Ridgeburn's plans for dealing with wastewater.